In 2017, a speaker at a Rotary Club of Guelph meeting described the weekend food gap suffered by some children in our midst. In fact, it was estimated that some 500 local children face this challenge. Rotarians were incredulous and concerned to learn about this problem ("In Guelph?") and decided to seek out and support whichever groups in Guelph were addressing this problem. After finding that NO ONE was, they decided that “someone” had to do "something" about it - and that ended being a group of Rotarians. The work began with a handful of committed Rotary volunteers plus start-up funding provided by the Rotary Clubs of Guelph.
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Collaboration by all four Guelph Rotary Clubs on this single project was a 'first' in almost 100 years of Rotary in Guelph. Previously, Rotarians from different clubs had often volunteered at each others' events, but not worked jointly on a single project. And this cross-club cooperation has since opened the door to many other cross-club cooperations!
Not wanting to reinvent the wheel, the volunteers found an amazing program called FOOD4KIDS that had started in Hamilton, Ontario in 2012 and had since spread to other nearby communities. A Food4Kids program was already running in Kitchener-Waterloo and that team was willing to help our Guelph volunteers get started locally.
A 15-week pilot program began in Spring 2018, supporting 43 kids at 3 elementary schools in Guelph. It was highly successful and the ongoing program then launched in earnest in September 2018, growing during that first full school year to 7 schools and 90 children in Guelph. The next school year, 2019-2020, the program grew again, ending the year in June 2020 with 12 schools and 200 children.
Several significant things happened in 2019-2020.
- GOING SOLO AS AN INDEPENDENT CHARITY. Operating originally as a 'branch' of the Food4Kids Waterloo program in Kitchener provided invaluable learning and support, but it presented some administrative burdens for both sides regarding the transfer back and forth of finances and issuance of tax receipts, so it was decided that Guelph would starting working towards "going solo" as a charity. Incorporation followed swiftly, but registering as a charity through the CRA took many months and was eventually obtained on July 1, 2019. The Guelph and Kitchener teams then severed their legal partnership but not their friendship and mutual admiration, which has endured. From then on, Food4Kids Guelph was an independent entity.
- AN AFFILIATION AGREEMENT WITH FOOD4KIDS ONTARIO. By 2019, several independent Food4Kids charities had started up in Southern Ontario cities and it made sense for them to collaborate in certain joint fundraising, joint buying power and joint sharing of minimum standards and best practices. Food4Kids Ontario was established to help coordinate this collaboration. Food4Kids Guelph gladly signed an "Affiliation Agreement" with Food4Kids Ontario (no charge) and maintained regular contact with all the other agencies. Food4Kids Guelph greatly benefitted from this
association. - COVID-19 STRUCK IN MARCH 2020. In mid-March 2020, just before Spring Break, the pandemic struck, starting a series of school closures and also the cancellation of important fundraisers. Unable to deliver weekend food bags to closed schools, Food4Kids pivoted to sending grocery gift cards to families to help with their purchase of food. Due to the dire needs of families, Food4Kids Guelph continued mailing gift cards throughout the summer holidays as well, requiring serious fundraising efforts by the charity. When the next school term officially began in September 2020, our district school boards established COVID restrictions at school properties limiting access to "essential" people - students, staff and emergency personnel. No parents, no volunteers, so Food4Kids was unable to deliver weekend food bags through the schools, and continued to mail grocery gift cards instead. During COVID, local demand for this food program doubled, from supporting 200 kids to 400. Thanks to grants and community support, finances were fortunately found.
Once the COVID period more-or-less ended, and people were getting back to work, it was anticipated that demand for this program would slow down or even decrease. On the contrary, as rents and food prices soared, many more families struggled to make ends meet. In fact, it was estimated that around 700 children in Guelph probably needed this program, in the “severe food insecurity” category. The number of children in the program grew to almost 500, supporting kids at 32 out of Guelph's 39 elementary schools.
As the entire program was still self-funded and was still being largely run by the original Rotary volunteers along with some other amazing volunteers from the community, with only one employee, a waiting list of new applicants had to be started while more funds were raised through donations, grants, fundraisers and sponsors. As the weekend food program was supporting children 52 weeks a year, both during school terms as well as during school holidays, along with necessary expenses like rent of the Food4Kids Guelph premises, insurance, etc., overall support costs had risen to almost $1,000 per child per year and required a budget of almost half a million dollars per year … a huge fundraising task for the small band of intrepid volunteers.
During the 2023-2024 school year, discussions began in earnest with the fantastic Children's Foundation of Guelph and Wellington with a view to them taking over the Food4Kids Guelph program. This finally took effect on July 1st, 2024.
A one-year joint review of how this merger had turned out took place in June 2025, and it was an absolute celebration of success!